My mother told me few stories of her life growing up in Latvia. I heard the basic facts - divorced parents, living in a flat in Riga, school, a few stories about her father, things she missed after coming to the UK like proper snow in winter and ice-skating on frozen ponds, but I have little idea of what my grandmother was like. She had to go out to work to support the family and I do remember my mother saying that she was quite strict and sharp with her. I found this difficult to reconcile with the lovely patient Granny that I knew! But of course being a working mother was probably even more difficult then than now and I imagine she must have been tired and worried a lot of the time.
And then to add to her problems, war broke out and by June 1940 the Baltic States had been invaded by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany. Life would never be the same for Latvians and the Sovietisation of the country began with all the familiar methods - installation of a puppet government, mass deportations and executions, nationalisation of property and collectivisation of farms, repression of religion and subjugation of social and cultural life to the ideals of Communism, reeducation of the youth. This was all presented to the world as a voluntary rebellion by the Latvian working people rather than an invasion by a hostile power and is still seen as such in Russia to this day. You can read a very detailed history of the three twentieth century occupations of Latvia here.
There is also an extremely interesting documentary made by Latvian Television about this first year of Soviet occupation. It gives the stories behind the facts and shows just how ruthless the Russians were in their imposition of Communist rule. In particular the instances of confiscation of property and land was unbelievably cruel, in many cases leaving people destitute. In the Spring of 1941 the confiscation of private possessions from so-called non-working elements was ordered en masse - this meant former private property owners and the bourgeousie. According to the documentary a committee of three would come to your house to seize all your household assets which were deemed ‘unnecessary’. You were allowed to keep one bed and two sheets, two plates and spoons, three pairs of shoes, two coats, two hats and only books that were necessary for work! Valuables, furniture, carpets, car, money, paintings, dishes, musical instruments, much clothing and most books were all taken. This seems so incredible to modern eyes yet it happened. As my grandmother was not a property owner she escaped this fate but probably knew people who were affected.
Identity photo of my mother dated October 1940, inscription on the rear, photograph of my mother and grandmother, map of the Baltic States
This identity photograph of my mother, above, inscribed on the back, is dated October 1940, four months after the Soviet invasion. No wonder she looks so miserable! Her hatred of the Russians must date from this time and lasted all her life. I found these two photographs, below, of my mother and grandmother taken sometime in the late 1930s by the look of them. They have been removed from an album so they must have been precious as most of the photographs in the family albums were left behind when they fled Latvia. There is something very tender about these images - it is as though my grandmother is trying to protect my mother and keep her safe from all the troubles and problems of the world……even more poignant knowing the future that lay before them. They form a tight little unit, but of course, someone else was there to take the photos - in all probability my step grandfather. Together with the lovely photograph of my mother sitting in a deckchair with her friend, these photographs epitomise for me the lost world of my mother’s youth. I return to them time and again and wonder what her life was truly like and wish that I had paid more attention to her stories……
My mother and grandmother, late 1930s
My mother and grandmother, late 1930s
My mother and a friend, summer 1940, Riga